Search - Fats Waller :: Complete Recorded Works 2: A Handful of Keys

3.5 stars actually

Blues Bro | Lakewood, Colorado USA | 02/07/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There is good and bad about this set being 'the complete recorded works'. The 'bad' being that the producers of this set have decided to include sessions where Fats was a sideman, and in many ocassions, he is just the piano player barely audible in the back. All in all, I'd say 50% of this box include tracks where Fats is featured, the rest are just tracks where Fats played on, but you cant really appreciate him. Since I bought this set because I wanted to hear great Fats Waller, I found myself skipping through most of discs 2 & 3.



Ted Kendall mastered this set. Ted is one of the apprentices of the great late John RT Davis. Ted, if you are reading this, take it easy on the noise reduction button. I dont understand why he is using it when Mr Davis was not very keen on it. Anyway Im not that impressed with the sonics of this set, there is some clear NR, not heavily used, but I dont think it was necessary. I wasnt impressed either with Ted Kendall's Bird box for the same reason.



This is just for completists. Others should seek the 3CD box 'If you have to ask, you aint got it'."

A no - brainer

jive rhapsodist | NYC, NY United States | 08/30/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you have any of the BMG sets, you can begin to think about getting rid of them...I haven't heard the latest one, which is supposed to be well put together, but the old ones...

In a way, I'm a bit less passionate about this set than about Vol. 1 because everything here is so well known. There are no "revelations" to be had. Thomas Waller here is now Fats with a capital F, mugging, singing, joyfully striding his way through (short) life. Technically the best pianist of the Big Three (Johnson,Waller,Smith), he has the smallest emotional range. Exuberance and joy are the main colors. Not that there's anything wrong with that...What tracks can I recommend to you? Basically all of them...Right now, I'm very intrigued by Turn On The Heat, which contains one of the rare examples of a Waller chorus which is more a sustained improvisation than a melodic paraphrase or a collection of disparate riffs. But then, there's Handful of Keys (a touchstone of Stride style), Valentine Stomp, The Minor Drag...you get the idea."